Rhodes has been with the team since Sunday, but was not placed on the major-league roster until it was time for him to start last night's series finale against the Texas Rangers. Anderson will spend the next 10 days with the Red Wings and rejoin the Orioles when the roster limit rises to 40 on Sept. 1.

Manager John Oates had not been able to guarantee a September call-up to the other veteran players who have been sent to the minor leagues recently, but he told Anderson to be at the Metrodome in time for the Sept. 1 game against the Minnesota Twins.

"I just shared with him that I needed 10 days," Oates said. "We didn't have a whole lot of options. It wasn't anything he hasn't done. He has done everything I've asked of him since he came off the disabled list."

Anderson has been the Orioles' designated pinch runner along with his duties as a reserve outfielder, but the return of first baseman Glenn Davis on Monday made a position player more expendable than a pitcher.

The choice was clear. Anderson, who was batting .191 in 204 at-bats, still had a minor-league option, so the club could send him down without waivers and bring him right back in 10 days.

Relief stopper Gregg Olson met with Oates, assistant general manager Frank Robinson and pitching coach Al Jackson on the day after he was removed from a save situation in favor of left-hander Mike Flanagan.

The particulars of the meeting were not released, but it apparently was an opportunity for Olson to talk out the problems he has been having on the mound.

"He's not having the 1-2-3 innings the way we've become accustomed to," Oates said. "We want him to be more aggressive and get after some people."

Olson is having a good year by most standards, but he has not been as overpowering of late as he was in 1989 and '90. Club officials are concerned that he is trying to be too perfect for his own good.

"He's giving opposing hitters too much credit," Robinson said.

Johnson bounces back

Right-hander Dave Johnson was buoyed by his four-inning, two-hit performance on Tuesday night, a performance that Oates said was his best of the year.

"He's probably right in the fact that I had a certain confidence in myself as far as throwing the sinker," Johnson said. "I'm not saying that after one night I'm Cy Young, but I could see the difference last night."

Johnson complained last weekend in Milwaukee that he had lost confidence in his sinker. Tuesday night, he decided that he had to throw it and live with the results.

"That has to be the main part of my repertoire," he said. "It's not that the pitch is so effective. It's that it makes my other pitches more effective."

Valentine, Grieve OK for now

Rangers managing general partner George W. Bush said vice president-general manager Tom Grieve and manager Bobby Valentine are not in danger of being fired, according to a story in the Dallas Morning News.

Valentine and Grieve will be evaluated at the end of the season and both should be back for next year, Bush said. But he added that if the team collapses during the last six weeks of the season, changes could be made.

"Nothing will change my position on Grieve right now," Bush said. "He's as good of a baseball guy as we've got.

"But if I thought the players were not playing for Bobby, I'd ask Tom about that. I think they are, though. I think they are playing hard."

Grieve said Bush's vote of confidence did not surprise him.

"I've felt ever since I've been here that the ownership has always been 100 percent behind the baseball operations," Grieve said.

Miscellaneous

The Orioles return home today and play back-to-back series against the division leaders, beginning with a weekend series against the Twins. The Blue Jays will open a 3-game set at Memorial Stadium on Monday night. . . . Glenn Davis was back in the DH slot last night, but probably will play first base Friday and Saturday night. "He is playing his legs into shape," Oates said. . . . Rangers C Ivan Rodriguez, who left Tuesday night's game with a jammed shoulder, was back in the starting lineup last night.